in regional electricity generating stations, which they used to supply power to their energy-intensive aluminium businesses. In a 2002 interview, Blavatnik told Bloomberg he was even considering creating his own railways. He and a friend from university, Viktor Vekselberg, formed the Renova investment vehicle. Blavatnik and Vekselberg initially obtained a stake in the Irkutsk Aluminum Plant. They accumulated smelters and plants until their company Sual had become the second-largest aluminum firm in Russia. In 1996, they obtained a coal mine in Kazakhstan. In 1997, Blavatnik Access Industries united with Viktor Vekselberg's Renova Corp and Mikhail Fridman's Alfa Group, to form a company AAR (Alfa, Access, Renova). Blavatnik’s key role within the group was to act as a connection to western businesses such as British Petroleum. Fridman, who was highly politically connected, had been a member of Boris Yeltsin’s inner circle in the mid 1990s. The first order of business for AAR was to buy 40 per cent of a struggling oil producer Tyumen Oil (TNK) for $800 million. TNK was one of few remaining state-owned oil companies. Tyumen Oil was auctioned off with criteria that exactly matched AAR. AAR far outbid its competitors but did not end up buying the agreed sum. AAR reportedly paid just a quarter of the sum. TNK then went on an acquisition spree, alighting on the oil company Sidanco, which was part-owned by the U.K. oil giant, British Petroleum. In 1999, TNK acquired Sidanco's best assets via bankruptcy proceedings. BP later sued TNK in the New York courts, claiming that the Sidanco assets were acquired illegally. The 1999 lawsuit was resolved in 2003 when British Petroleum acquired TNK, for $8 billion, forming TNK-BP, one of the largest oil companies in Russia. The deal, labelled in the press as "Russia's deal of the decade" gave BP unprecedented access to vital Russian oil and gas. It was the first time that a foreign company was in control of a major producer in Russia's energy heartland. The deal also made Len Blavatnik, Mikhail Fridman, German Khan and Viktor Vekselberg, who controlled half of TNK-BP, billions of dollars. At the time, Fridman told the press: "Any business should be sold if you're offered the right price. If you don't, the market will punish you. Or God. Or maybe they are the same thing." At the time of the purchase, Blavatnik, a U.S. citizen, was living in New York. In